Tuesday, October 4, 2011

TV: Glee - 3.02 I Am Unicorn (Review)

Episode: 3.01 "I Am Unicorn"Network: FoxAirdate: September 27, 2011Writer: Ryan MurphyDirector: Brad FalchukDescription: New Directions faces a shake up when Shelby Corcoran comes to McKinley High and Rachel has to deal with the return of her biological mother. Meanwhile, Kurt starts his run for class president with the special help of Brittany.

The ramifications from Will Schuester's (Matthew Morrison) decision to deny Sugar Motta a spot in the glee club last week show up immediately in this episode when Will runs into former Vocal Adrenaline glee coach Shelby Corcoran in the staff room and finds out that Sugar's rich father gave McKinley High a blank check to have a glee club that would take his daughter.

Sue Sylvester's (Jane Lynch) campaign against the arts finds a face in the scared and confused Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron). Unfortunately for Sue - but luckily for Quinn - her convincing Quinn to portray her sob story as the fallout from participating in the arts leads to frank conversations with Mr. Schuester and Shelby, who adopted Quinn's baby Beth at the end of season 1. Along with the visibly maturing Puck, Quinn seems to come around and makes an effort, but her words to Puck suggest she is pretending in an attempt to get her daughter back.

Mr. Schue has the glee club's less able dancers attend a "Booty Camp" to improve their dancing. Mike Chang helps teach the sessions with the likes of Kurt, Mercedes, Blaine attending but the focus is on Finn and his lack of dance moves.

Kurt Hummel gets some advice for his campaign from Brittany to embrace who he is and be a unicorn but his early disagreements with her ideas leads Brittany to decide to run for herself instead of helping Kurt run.

The school musical begins auditioning with Coach Beiste, guidance counselor Emma Pilsbury and glee club member Artie Abrams running it while Mr. Schue focuses on Nationals. Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) auditions for Maria and seems to be the early favorite but Kurt's audition for Tony did not seem to go over well and Blaine's (Darren Criss) audition for a lesser role wowed the judges enough for them to ask him to try for Tony.

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It was great to see Finn get some character development, at times it feels like he gets shafted to the side for other characters despite being the lead of New Directions. The conversation with Rachel in the auto shop was great to get both of their perspectives on the future and Rachel continuing to try to push Finn to fill out his potential. Then to see him persevere in the "Booty Camp" and adequately perform the steps was a nice top off for him in the episode.

Something that is going relatively under the radar is that despite being co-captain of the Cheerios and being kicked off of New Directions, Santana has been a lot less bitchy and insulting overall and more of a supportive friend to Brittany. It also looks like the beard relationship with Karofsky is over since he has been nonexistent this year.

And my favorite part of the school musical is that it gives some of my favorite GLEE characters screen time. I am talking about Coach Beiste, Emma and Blaine. Also if the casting goes the way the episode hints I will not be adverse to seeing some more Rachel/Blaine interaction after absolutely loving that episode last season where Rachel crushed on him.

While there were those that disliked GLEE season 2 for the move to more produced performances away from the character songs that were heavy in season 1, I enjoyed those times like the "Singing in the Rain" bit with Gwenyth Paltrow or the Britney Spears episode and I am hoping there will still be some of that this season and less of Kurt moving around on a metal scaffold.

I am worried about the direction Quinn's character is going, every season it has felt like there is a goodness to her that gets ignored for the more vindictive, selfish, catty version. In season 1 it was cheating on Finn and the baby fiasco with Terri. Season 2 was cheating on Sam and trying to keep Finn and Rachel apart. Now in season 3 it looks like she is going after Beth without any regard for what's best for her or the baby, something I refuse to believe Quinn is all about.

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Assuming Quinn is accepted back into New Directions, that leaves two spots open in the glee club that needs to be filled. Will Santana be far behind? And what of Sugar Motta? She seems to be a constant presence for someone not in the glee club, will she eventually find her way into that last spot? All yet to be answered questions and I expect Mercedes will be auditioning as well for Maria and how will Kurt and Blaine's relationship be affected by the musical? Plenty of fun left to be had this season without focusing on Quinn's less than positive motives.